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[andrei901]

I feel like having a completely unarmored recruit (not counting his clothes) survive 24 arrows stuck in him and three that glanced off, and stay alive for long enough to a) repel the siege and b) deconstruct my bridge entrance complex as he fell down the into an inescapable pit is wrong.

I didn't get a screenshot as he bled to death while my doctors were dealing with other, significantly less injured dwarves, but nonetheless-when he died, I counted 24 copper and silver arrows appearing on his corpse. Shouldn't he be dead after 2-3? and how do you even fit 24 arrows into a dwarven body?

Anyway, off to see if I can get someone to statue that battle. I'll place it over his coffin.

[thegoatgod_pan]

Check his traits: he might be superdwarvenly tough or basically unbreakable.  I had a dwarf lose a baby and an arm, drop into bed exhausted, get back up and kill 17 goblins holding axe and shield in the same hand. She was epic.

[Sphalerite]

I just had an admittedly legendary marksdwarf one-shot a titan in the brain with a bone bolt, so I don't think they've been nerfed.  Might be incredibly random and/or dependent on skill however.

[Montague]

They sure seem like they have.

Anything short of a catastrophic shot to the head seems to just tack on a bleeding wound that isn't immediately fatal, which is realistic, sorta. They tend to bleed out eventially but in the meantime, a pin-cushioned target can still do a lot of damage in the meanwhile.

They also seem to fire slower? Did Toady ever get around to detaching weapon speed from movement speed?

[sneakey pete]

over 40 bone bolts shot at a couger from a master crossbow dwarf hunter (i'd say 75% of them hit). it crawled off of the map.

[Darkmere]

I can't say I used crossbows in the past, but they seem to be fantastic at incapacitating invaders. If you're lacking steel it could make the first few goblinite shipments that much safer for your bronze-clad militia.

[Sir Leonard III]

About 20 shots from an adept marksdwarf to a wolf. All but four parts of its body were hit.
But then again, a goblin shot one of my axedwarves head clean off with one shot.

Combat is random, and always will be.

[Saiko Kila]

They are just very random, like ballista arrows. They are better than ballistas, but you need both luck and skilled crossbowmen (calling them "marksdwarves" is too much) to hit vital organs - brain, then heart and then lungs. But shots to other parts are not very dangerous. Actually even recruits can hit and kill with their first shot - I had it, but it's rare, so I wouldn't count on it. Sometimes pincushioned enemies are caught in traps when retreating. In my experience most of them survives (I keep prisoners for years) but bear many scars later.

[Agent_86]

In my experience, marksdwarves are a very good deterrent.  I've seen goblin sieges leave after one volley with no injuries.

Crossbows aren't specifically lethal.  That being said, a goblin who has been hit in the spine/heart/lungs/head is toast, and if a bolt hits a limb, they'll be seriously disabled when you send your melee dwarves in(especially if their leg is broken or if their attack arm was hit).

One thing I've also noticed is that if an enemy is hit in the foot and the bolt sticks in the wound, they don't fall over, they just stand there, as if their foot is stuck into the ground.  That makes them perfect "practice" for the rest of your marksdwarves.

[Jimlad11]

deleted

[Erkki]

I just had my militia captain(copper helm and mail shirt) hit 8 or 9 times by a Goblin master bowman. Medical screen says he has "lost ability to stand" and lots of other nasty stuff but it doesnt stop him from partying around the clock or killing more Goblins during their annual sieges...

Happens at times, the poor recruit that stood next to him was hit only twice, in both legs, but bled out quick.

[Agent_86]

A bunch of farmers with crossbows can quickly turn into a highly disciplined machine-gun-crossbow squad       

Best part about that is, you don't really need a ton of legendary marksdwarves to make a difference.  A full squad of even mediocre marksdwarves should be a sufficient addition to any militia.

[celem]

Especially if you funnel enemies a little.  Massed marksdwarves then rock even more as bolts that miss their target hit his mate

[Flying Dice]

A single 4-dwarf squad of legendary marksdwarves is usually enough to drive off a seige of any size, provided my battlements have been completed and the ammunition holds out. I set up a medium-sized keep outside my main entrance, with a single tile wide passage around the outside with fortifications, and a massive ammo stockpile on the inside (both 1 z-level above ground, obviously). I have a 3-tile wide dry moat around the wall to prevent hiding in the blind spot, and I either build near a river, or near high ground which has had all ramps removed, funneling invaders between the moat and the obstacle toward my trapped entrance. I almost never need my traps, as those 4 legendaries almost always break attacks within twenty seconds of contact. The primary reason why I edited the RAWs to allow butchering of senients and military kills was to give me a way to clean up the masses of corpses after a siege.

Typical battle result would be about 60% of invaders killed outright below the walls, 20% bled out/hunted down by melee squads after escaping with heavy wounds, and 20% escape entirely. So yes, they're pretty effective.

[Hyndis]

Especially if you funnel enemies a little.  Massed marksdwarves then rock even more as bolts that miss their target hit his mate

Indeed. If a bolt misses its primary target it will still continue to fly downrange, meaning if there are a whole pile of goblins every single bolt will hit something.

Massed marksdwarves can be extremely dangerous even when entirely unskilled. While they may not be able to kill all invaders, the survivors of the hail of bolts will be too crippled to fight, and the novice marksdwarves can finish the helpless goblins off in melee.